


Competing

by quinnfabs



Series: Friendship Writing Challenge [9]
Category: Glee
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 20:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3460685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quinnfabs/pseuds/quinnfabs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rachel doesn't like that Mercedes and Kurt are spending so much time together, she's tired of losing people she cares about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Competing

**Author's Note:**

> There are some Finn references, though he isn't explicitly mentioned. - Sequel to Alternate Meeting in my friendship writing challenge. All you really need to know is that Mercedes was never part of New Directions, so she never met any of them until she moved to New York.

When Mercedes and Kurt first start hanging out, Rachel doesn’t really notice very much. She has Funny Girl to work on, it consumes most of her time. Between rehearsals and running lines she barely has any time to pay attention to anything else. She wakes up, breathes Barbra, and goes back to sleep. She kind of likes it that way, it gives her less time to worry.

She comes home grumpy after a particularly grueling day, her director told her that she wasn’t working hard enough. All she wants is to binge watch some Project Runway with Kurt and eat the leftover vegan ice cream from the fridge and wallow in self-pity for a little bit. She doesn’t think she’s asking for that much. So when she comes home and sees Mercedes and Kurt, cuddled up on the couch, watching  _When Harry Met Sally_ , she sees red.

She wants to storm right in and pull Kurt out of  _her_ arms. How dare she come in out of nowhere and try to steal her best friend? They’ve known each other for 5 years now! Sure, they didn’t like each other very much in the beginning, but she was almost his sister-in-…

She doesn’t let herself finish that thought.

But they have been living together for the past year and a half. That means something, at least to her.

It’s no matter though, if there’s one thing Rachel Berry knows she can do, it’s win a competition. She’ll just have to prove to Kurt that she is the  _best_ best friend. And then this Mercedes nonsense will end. So she starts formulating a plan in her head, right there as she stands in the doorway.

“Hey Rach, you okay?” she hears.

“I’m okay Kurt, had a long day. You want to do something later?” she responds, in her sweetest voice, actively ignoring Mercedes.

“We were going to the bar to catch up with Elliott and the others, you want to join us?” Mercedes asks, with a smile.

Rachel wants to s _cream._ Of c _ourse_ Kurt and Mercedes made plans. They a _lways_ have plans.

So she says, “Sounds good to me” and gives Mercedes her best menacing smile.

When they’re at the bar, Rachel makes sure to stand as close as possible to Kurt. She even buys him a drink, his favorite. He grins, and she grins back. It feels good. She asks him if he wants to dance, and he says of course. They have the best dance moves, after all.

Two dances in, Mercedes joins them and Kurt twirls her. They’re all dancing, and it wouldn’t be so bad if Mercedes didn’t keep stealing Kurt’s attention away with her spins.

She feels like a jealous girlfriend and she hates that she feels like this but she’s lost so much in such a short amount of time, the thought of losing her best friend makes her want to cry.

But she doesn’t cry, because she’s going to  _win this._ So she starts dancing closer to Kurt, pulls him away from Mercedes, makes sure that there’s no chance for Mercedes to join them. Kurt’s too drunk to care and Mercedes just wants to dance, so neither of them seem to put up a fuss. In Rachel’s mind, she’s won.

A few weeks later, after another grueling day of practice she comes home and sees Kurt and Mercedes on the couch a _gain_ and she’s so over this.

So she goes and sits on the other side of Kurt, puts her head on his shoulder. “You alright?” he says.

“Just missed you, I feel like it’s been forever since we did something.” She responds.

“What do you mean, Rachel?” Kurt mutters, with a laugh. “We literally live together, I see you every day.”

“Well we haven’t really  _done_ anything, lately. I feel like I’ve been so busy with rehearsal.” Rachel rambles. “I just miss my best friend,” shifting her gaze to Mercedes as she finishes, with a small smirk.

“We were planning to go get some dinner after this, we could go somewhere you like? I’d love to hear about your Broadway career!” Mercedes says, excitedly.

Rachel wants to puke, she can tell that Mercedes is faking, of course she is! She wants to steal her life, one step at a time. So she ignores her, and turns back to Kurt.

“We should go to the NYADA ball together! I know that I’m not technically a student anymore, but I have ties there, and Blaine’s hanging out with Cooper that weekend. So you’d  _have_ to bring a plus one.” She hates that she has to try so hard just to hang out with Kurt, but if she could just get him alone, maybe enough time to sing a duet or something, he’d realize that she’s the superior friend.

Mercedes shifts in her seat, a little uncomfortable. It’s been pretty clear that Rachel doesn’t like her very much, but she’d never been so  _overt_ with her disdain. She’s just trying to be nice, wants to make some new friends. “Maybe I should go.” She says, to Kurt.

Kurt looks at her for a moment, and then gazes back to Rachel.

“Rachel, this has to stop.”

And when Rachel hears that she knows it’s over, she’s lost. “Fine.” She gets up, she might not like losing, but she knows how to take a loss like a winner.

But Kurt doesn’t let her leave, grabs her hand before she can walk away.

“We’re adults Rachel, I can be friends with Mercedes and still be friends with you.” He says, calm as ever.

“I’m sorry if I did something to offend you, I just don’t know very many people in New York yet.” Mercedes says, gazing at her intently.

She doesn’t know what to say. She feels childish, but she can’t  _help_ it. She wouldn’t be able to stand someone else she cares about being taken away from her, she just w _ouldn’t._ She grips Kurt’s hand tighter and frowns. “I don’t want to lose my best friend,” she says, in a small voice.

“Rach, me being friends with Mercedes doesn’t mean that we’re not best friends anymore. You aren’t losing me, you aren’t losing anyone.”

“You can’t promise that, though.” She whispers, trying to blink away tears.

Kurt looks at her and tries not to cry, he knows exactly who she’s thinking of and it hurts because he c _an’t_ promise that he’ll be here. He just holds her hand, hopes that it serves as some kind of comfort.

“Rachel, I can’t say I know how you feel but I would  _never_  try to take Kurt away from you. I just want to be friends, friends with a _ll of you.”_ And the way Mercedes says it, so earnestly, Rachel feels kind of like an idiot for projecting a pain that she’s been trying so hard to avoid feeling onto this.

“I’m sorry.” Rachel responds. “I promise I’m not always this crazy, let’s start over.” She says, looking only at Mercedes this time. Mercedes nods, with a small smile.

“Diner? We can bother Santana, it’s her shift.” Kurt says, grinning.

“Sounds perfect.” Rachel says, and she means it.


End file.
